It is known to use a scarfing tool to remove excess weld material from a longitudinally welded metal tube. The scarfed weld material comes off in a strip, which is very hot and, in places, razor sharp. Methods have been used to collect the strip and at the same time to prevent the strip from flailing about. Typically, the hot strip is wound onto a spool on a winder, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,218, which issued Nov. 29, 1994 to Kazuo Omura. When the spool is full, the strip accumulation process must be stopped, and the strip must be cut so that the now-heavy full spool, or the wound strip, can be removed from the winder. To restart the strip accumulation process, a newly formed strip must be fed onto the winder. At start up of the scarfing process, at spool changing time and at other times when there is a break in stripping process, e.g. skipping over a butt weld, an extremely hot and sharp end of the bead must be manually manouevered towards the winder by an operator, e.g. with pincers. This requires much skill, partly because the hot, sharp strip has a tendency to curl unpredictably. As a result, it is not unusual for accidents to occur and the operator to be lacerated and/or burned.
Other methods of dealing with the scarfed strip have been attempted. One method uses an angled scarfing tool and the scarfed strip is directed into a crusher beneath the tube, so that the strip is torn into pieces and dumped into a machine-moveable hopper. This overcomes the problem of moving a heavy, hot reel of wound strip. However, this method, and others like it, still require manual feeding of an end of the strip in order to start the disposal process. For safety reasons, an automatic strip feeding device is highly desirable. One such device is disclosed by in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,218. Notwithstanding the apparent appeal of this chopping device, it is not being used commercially. It is believed that one of the reasons is the ease with which the slotted guide in the apparatus can become jammed, particularly by light gauge scarfed weld bead, because of the unpredictable spiral curliness of the bead as it leaves the scarfing tool. Another disadvantage of Omura apparatus is that the cut chips of weld bead are expelled from the cutter in the direction of the scarfed tube. Since the weld beads are hard, they can cause damage to the tube and to any rolls, e.g. ironing rolls that are located in the vicinity of the chopping device. The present invention is directed to overcoming the shortcomings of previously used apparatus and methods.